This invention relates in general to chucking devices and in particular to a new and useful apparatus and method for checking the operation readiness of a chuck.
It is known from German OS No. 28 46 337 to equip a power chuck with a device for determining the clamping force from the forces acting on the clamping elements. The device, designed as a detector, comprises a sensor which is disposed in the zone of the clamping surfaces, to directly detect the forces to which the clamping elments are exposed. This is to avoid excessive clamping of a workpiece, intended to counteract any easing of the clamp through centrifugal forces, and to simplify the mechanism for controlling the clamping force.
Details of design of the device and arrangement of the component parts cannot be learned from this prior art disclosure, however, it seems therefore that the clamping force cannot be determined reliably, so that the correct clamping in a chuck can hardly be monitored, especially since nothing is disclosed about how the signals of the sensor are led out of the chuck body.